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An Organization Development consultant wrote to ODNet that he has been tasked by his executive with facilitating a process designed to define "what we want our company's culture to be."

What a great aspiration. What an exciting challenge for an OD practitioner.

The consultant went on to ask: "...we're simply trying to select a model for defining a culture, and potential questions to pose to the executive team. By model I mean a list of categories of characteristics that define a culture."

This is what I recommended to him:

Don't let your executive off the hook. If he (or she) is the top person in the organization, the culture will be affected by him, one way or another. Keep him engaged with you in this project.

I worked for a telecom company back in the early to mid 1990's that had pursued this very same goal.

The CEO had founded the company in the 1980's following the break-up of Ma Bell. In the early y…

A classic tag line in many job descriptions is: "And other dutiesas assigned."

Yesterday in a job ad, I saw the following final paragraph:

"This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities,skills, duties, requirements, effort or working conditionsassociated with the job. While this is intended to be an accuratereflection of the current job, management reserves the right torevise the job or to require that other or different tasks beperformed when circumstances change (e.g., emergencies, changes inpersonnel, workload, rush jobs, or technical developments)."

I had not seen that type of language in a job ad before.

Why is it there? Is it some sort of new legal tagline? How do youfeel about it?

To me, it makes sense. An organization needs enough flexibility to adapt to changing conditions and to seize opportunities.

The same day that I posted the hidden talent entry, there was a piece by writer Amy Joyce in the Washington Post on the same topic! Called "Untapped Potential," Joyce examines the reality that many employees have more to offer if they are just asked. Here are some excerpts:

The vast land of workers is full of them: people who do their jobs but have much more to offer. These people could possess great hidden leadership talent or smart ideas about how to run things better.

The only problem is how to identify these so-called high-potential employees.

Just about any workplace could be teeming with them. Now if only a management team could recognize who has such potential.

Finding talent that is already within an organization is a smart business move. For one thing, cultivating existing talent can save money on hiring additional labor. Discovering the potential within your organization is also important because it can boost morale. Those workers whose ideas an…

In their book, Schmuck and Runkel start off by looking at organizations as living systems. Each system, such as a school, is comprised of many interacting subsystems. The organization operates within an environment that sets the context, as well as the conditions that the organization must adapt to if it is to succeed and survive.

They then go on to further explore the notion of adaptability. Adaptability in organizations consists of several aspects such as receptiveness to the environment, responsiveness among subsystems, and effective use of its own resources. But Schmuck and Runkel drill even deeper to the inter-related concepts of Differentiation and Int…

Each year, the Drama teacher at his high school asks parents if they can volunteer some time to help build the sets for the Fall and Spring shows. Last year, hearing that a lighting effect was needed for one scene, a parent stepped forward --let's call him "Joe"-- and said that he is a licensed electrician. Indeed, he rigged up the needed lighting effect in no time.

Later, when the sets were under construction, Joe said that he is a builder and volunteered again. In no time, he had joined the other volunteer carpenters and was hammering away.

During one rehearsal, when Joe noticed that the choreographer was getting frazzled, he said that he had studied dance for many years and would be glad to help her out. Which he did, dancing like a pro!

Then, at a later rehearsal, Joe showed up with a tray of cakes that he had baked as a treat for the cast. He said, "I'm taking a course in baking and I m…

Came across this interesting article in Business Week that looks at how millions of people will soon be learning, creating new content, and innovating globally, via technology that is already deployed e.g. blogs.

A very learned Catholic theologian is visiting my parish this week for a Lenten mission. At last night's talk, she explored the meaning of the Trinity, three persons in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I sat there wondering: Where is God the Mother?

The speaker told us that this triune God is all about love, exploding with love in fact. So love-giving that God gave his Son as a sign of that love.

What happened to the Mother? When will we get a Trinity where the Father and the Son are joined by the Mother? As the speaker pointed out, Jesus arrived as a human baby and such arrivals require a mother, don't they?

Just wondering. It would make the Trinity more complete, I'd think. More whole. More perfect in love.

Blogger Gautam Ghosh, at Gautam Ghosh on Management, recently wrote: "Blogging really opens up possibilities to interact with people one could never have hoped to meet or interact during the normal course of life." I wholeheartedly agree.

Further, blogging opens up new ways of creating content, communicating, connecting, and collaborating.

Blogger DoubleDubs, at SystematicHR, has an interesting series going on right now about Talent Management. DD's Part 2, on Performance Management, has been quite lively, with participation by Regina Miller and Gautam Ghosh (as well as yours truly).